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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about someone telling their family they won’t be continuing the long-standing family business.

Posted in Sad on Oct 31, 2022

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✍️ 175 stories

“Happy New Year” by Sofie 6710

Submitted to Contest #69

It was silent in the large hall. Except for the scraping of cutlery, the wind howling slightly outside, the music blasting from neighboring houses, and the occasional pop from a champagne bottle. It was New Year’s Eve after all, and people deserved to party. The year had been a tough one, on families, relationships and especially businesses. The young man, who sat at the end of the table, facing his family, knew all too well of the last one. "Curse all who celebrate this year." Said an older man, who sat next to the younger one. "Down by...

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“This is my life ” by Billy Skjeie

Submitted to Contest #69

I was sitting around the basement table, where we would normally have family conversations. My parents were discussing my 18th birthday, and the plans of me taking over.  18, it is such a young age. There is much I haven’t experienced. I’ve seen almost everything. When anyone in a family in this business turns 18 they take over the business. Any family with an 18 year old, we all start to work together. Luckily, I have no cousins. Although my father has taught me everything, we would work with a close family friend. I would run most o...

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“Not Like You” by Christine Hungerford

Submitted to Contest #69

He walked into his expectant family’s meeting in the crowded living room. “I won’t be knitting, sewing or crocheting sweater vests for the rest of my life. I will not be continuing a company like our family’s one.”       His father scrunched his bushy eyebrows and started to say something, but he insisted. “I will not subject myself to such boredom. I’m more than that. I’m a leader. If anyone wants to object, know I won’t listen.” He swung around and proceeded to cross the hallway to his room. After shutting the door...

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“Never Apologize for Living your Dream” by Oshin Wong

Submitted to Contest #69

My parents had scarified everything for my little sister and me when we came to America. They abandoned their friends and family just so we could have a chance at a better life. I will always look up to my parents; they are the best people I know. However today I feel like I will be taking their sacrifice and hard work and throwing it back in their face. It was never my intention to walk away from the family business but as time went on I found other interest and other passions. There was so much more to the big city than working in a loca...

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“No Longer” by Olive Flores

Submitted to Contest #69

Lindsay is a teenage girl in her second year of high school. Her mom and dad own a bakery shop that was passed down to them from her mother's mother for over 80 years now. Lindsay's mom has always planned to pass down the family business to her because her older brother was incarcerated after committing arson and was not able to take the responsibilities of the bakery. Lindsay hasn't wanted to work in the shop all this time, but now since she is only a week away from getting her workers permit, she needed to confess. "Hey Mom!," Lindsay sa...

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“"Fateful Encounter" ” by Faith Mwale

Submitted to Contest #69

“Joel stood up and was about to leave the reserved room at the Payee restaurant, when suddenly a loud sound of a glass crack interrupted his movement. Turning back to find his mother on the floor with the juice spilled on the floor beside her.”It’s around 2018, when Joel was announced to be the upcoming successor of the family business by his 65 yrs. old grandfather. Mixed emotions filtered around Mr. Bake’s living room, where all the family members were present. Joel stood there with a very surprised expression on his face, as if he wasn’t...

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“Gin without tonic” by Ayub Mbugua

Submitted to Contest #69

Olupayi is 35 years old and looks much taller than his 173cm, thanks to his lean frame. Had he been born in Las Vegas, he might have been a bantam weight boxing champion.  His face is a midnight hue that cracks to reveal an unlikely perfect set of white teeth when he smiles. Close up, one can see that his hands are calloused and his rough fingers bent. The veins on his sinewy forearms stand out like so many chords hidden under the deeply tanned African skin.  His face tells a few hundred stories, and the smile lines running down hi...

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“The freezer” by Cliff M.

Submitted to Contest #69

The dark hallway seemed as long as it was eerie. Even though it was a small New York cramped apartment, it seemed like it stretched like a fashion show walkway, but with an audience of old family photos, that only showed a little glimpse of innocence now lost. It shouldn't have been disturbing, it was Luca's childhood home after all, it was the place where he was first taken to from the hospital after his birth and has been his metaphorical nest for his entire life and the way things are going who knows how long he will still be there. The s...

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“Papa Petey's Pizza Place” by Grace Lynn

Submitted to Contest #69

“Yes, Mom. I’ll be there. I’m excited to see you, too! Yeah. Alright, Mom. I will. Love you, too. Goodbye.” Ari hung up the phone with a sigh. “Jon, we’re meeting my mother for dinner, alright? At the new pizza place in town.” “Alright, honey,” Jon said, giving Ari a kiss on the forehead. “Have you told her yet?” “Not yet,” Ari responded. “I can’t bring myself to do it.” “You’ll have to at some point, dear.” Jon lectured.  “I know, Jon. But not tonight. Let’s just enjoy ourselves tonight. Come on, I’ll drive.” The couple made their ...

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“After They've Seen Paree” by Chuck Waldron

Submitted to Contest #69

“What possessed you to buy that old cruddy diary,” her friend asked as they walked to the car? “That’s why I like to browse thrift shops,” Ashley answered. “Why? This diary only cost twenty-five cents, and who knows, it might be interesting.” Ashley was never sure what there was about the old diary. Later that night, sitting with a glass of wine, she let the pages open randomly and began reading. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ December 14, 1954 What do they want from me? Today. I have to do it today. I know it. I’ve run out of options, tim...

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“The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree” by Lumen Ros

Submitted to Contest #69

Merrick watched the snowfall from his kitchen window with—what he believed to be—child-like fascination. Not having one, he had no reference point.The street below, yet a virgin canvas, waited for the day to create its art. And the sun taunted with its inclosing appearance, casting its first light on yesterday’s naked trees, now donned in pristine, glistening white vestures. He narrowed his vision, focusing on the individual flakes descending on the windowpane. Each unique in design, each perfect in nature’s creation.It never snowed down sou...

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“A Saint's Embrace” by Maya Molina

Submitted to Contest #69

Trigger Warning: Mild Gore, Guns, Death, Corpses“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” shaking words of a still man. Yes, there were tears on his face, yes he was sad and scared and frustrated, but he was still. It looked as if his body was moving while his mind told it to stop. Eyes and face both overflowed with crying but with a perfect aim. Arms up, gun cocked and trigger pushed. As the strange little object flew from the gun to the person’s face, his body flew back. “I’m sorry I had to, I had… to,” his b...

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“It’s Just Business” by Emmett Sanford

Submitted to Contest #69

Thunder rolls from a nearby storm, as a young man paces in front of a stained glass window inside of a glamorous Italian bedroom. A wine glass, half full, aids him in his thinking as he ponders the day to come. He watches as rain floods the busy streets, and bounces gracefully off the umbrellas of people bold enough to travel in such weather. A man trips over a loose brick in the sidewalk, and is helped up by another soaked onlooker. Such charity, the man thinks, giving a complete stranger your time and effort, for free. The silken rug muffl...

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“Staged” by Elle .

Submitted to Contest #69

I remember clearly. On my sixteenth birthday I had gotten the greatest gift I had ever received at that time. Well - the greatest gift that my parents could provide from me anyways. It was in the form of a knock off dress, they had pawned a clients golden watch to get the most authentic looking dress for my big performance. It’s not the type of performance where I prance around in a Tutu trying to embody that of a stuffed swan, where my dad would shed elaborate tears of joy at my twirls and pirouettes. No. It was the real deal. A show stoppe...

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“I hate you. Now, and forever.” by Appu Kalambettu

Submitted to Contest #69

“We’ve been over this so many times!” “Darling, you simply must understand the implications of your decision!” I stare at the fireplace intently, to somehow avoid the incoming barrage of noise. The same words, replaying on loop, over and over and over and over again. I watch the freshly cut logs, with splinters sticking out like a sore thumb, proof of messy workmanship, blacken with soot, engulfed by golden hunger so insatiable, it wouldn’t stop until only shreds of ashes, minuscule but massive, lay in a mound, a mere reminder of its exi...

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